"I think a lot of it is when you start getting your better players back, that mentality changes," Mitchell said. "Now you know what is going to happen. We know there are certain shots that we are going to get now that Chris is back. When it goes in to him, they are either going to double him or take their chances and let him go one-on-one. He's either going to get fouled or he's going to score. Now they're stuck. When to come and when not to. That opens things up."

"I told our guys we're very fortunate to be 10-10, but the East is like this," Mitchell said yesterday, making the universal hand sign for a roller coaster. "We haven't gained any ground but we really haven't lost any. If we can get healthy and then make our push we'll be all right."

He first dunked a ball when he was in eighth grade. During his days at Central-Coosa High in Rockford, Ala., he did things people down there still talk about.

"He had some mean dunks you would not believe," says Joe Belyeu, Moon's high school coach, who has been on the job 30 years. "Jamario stole the ball on the wing, and there was this little old boy who was going to try and take a charge on him. Jamario jumped over him and dunked that ball. That is the truth."